


Death comes to Georgia

by Cheryl1964



Category: Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter - Laurell K. Hamilton, Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-25
Updated: 2013-02-25
Packaged: 2017-12-03 14:46:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 8,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/699398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cheryl1964/pseuds/Cheryl1964
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daryl Dixon almost stops the zombie Apocalypse with a little help from the US Marshall's office preternatural branch</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Introducing Death

**Author's Note:**

> A Crossover between The Walking Dead and Anita Blake Vampire Hunter. I don't own either one. Takes place pre-series of TWD

"Anita this one isn't even worth your time, besides with the mother of All Darkness in her current snit you need to stay as close to Jean Claude as possible." Edward said into the phone. "It's just a simple hunt, I'll be working with one of the best guys in Georgia. Met him a few years back, between him and me we'll handle it."

_"Edward I know you. You only like hunting the biggest and baddest, if something happened to you and I wasn't there..."_

"Relax, Anita this is not the biggest or baddest of anything. It's just a favor, this guy did me one a while back. But I promise if it looks like the metaphysical shit is about to hit the fan, I'll call you Okay?"

_"You'd better." Anita said._

"Scout's honor. Tell Count Dracula Hi for me." Edward replied, hanging up the phone with that parting shot and hurrying over to join the passengers boarding the plane to Atlanta after a long delay.

* * *

Daryl Dixon hated the Atlanta traffic. He tended to avoid Atlanta like the plague and wouldn't be here now if he didn't have to meet Edward, or rather Ted Forrester, at the airport. Bad tempered at the best of times, sitting in the Atlanta airport cooling his heels for a flight two hours late had used up the last of his patience.

"Southwest flight 172 from Albuquerque now arriving at Concourse A, Gate 10." A pleasant female voice announced over the PA system.

"It's about damn time." Daryl muttered wandering over to the area where debarking passengers would enter the terminal before heading off to the baggage claim area.

Daryl looked down as his cell phone rang. Damned electronic piece of shit he thought to himself as he answered it. "Yeah?"

"Dixon, this is US Marshall Ted Forrester, I need you to meet me at the baggage claim area. I had to check some of my gear."

"I'll be there." Daryl hung up the phone and went to the information desk to ask which baggage claim area to go to. Getting directions he headed off in that direction.

* * *

Edward settled himself into the passenger seat of the Ford F-150 and glanced over at the man behind the wheel. "Okay Daryl, you want to tell me why I'm here? I mean calling 'Death' in for back up only usually happens when we've got some major vampire or shifter activity going down in the US." Edward asked. "I got a problem and need your help didn't tell me much."

"You remember telling me that you had a run in with that feathered dragon thing back in Santa Fe? Well I called cause I figured you're bout the only one that'll believe me when I tell you that we got in these woods. About a week ago some hikers found the bodies of some campers. Cops wrote it off as a bear attack, but night before last they found a couple a local kids. Teenagers just lookin' for a quiet spot to bang eavh other in the backseat ya know? That's when they called me in, figured I could track it and kill it.

Only problem, it won't no bear. No claw marks or nothin', but I did find some tracks. Looked like a group of people were around the area, maybe four of five of em. Funny thing is the bodies ain't had no blade marks neither. It's like whoever these people was they just ripped em open with their bare hands and and started feedin' on em.

Varmit laws round here has kept the shifter population down. Most of the shifters mostly live in the bigger cities like Atlanta and they behave themselves. But it looks like we got a pack of some kind of shifters done made themselves at home up in the mountains. And mindin' their P's and Qs ain't high on their list of priorities." Daryl explained.


	2. Settling in

"They already took the bodies out so the trail is totally mucked up now." Daryl explained, lifting a duffle bag from the bed of the truck. "It'd be best to pick it up a little farther in the woods where they ain't been stompin around. We stay here tonight and head out at first light."

"This is a switch, usually when I work on any of these cases I end up stumbling in to hit the sack at sun up." Edward said grabbing his other bag.

"Shit Ed, whadya pack in this thing, the kitchen sink?" Daryl said with a grunt setting the bag down just inside the door to the small cabin. "Well this is it, home sweet home. It ain't much but I don't need much myself. The couch folds out so ya got your own space to sleep in.

That back door there goes to the bathroom and before you ask no, it ain't outside with a half moon on the door. Indoor plumbing is one modern convenience I'm right thankful for."

"And here I was looking forward to the full 'hillbilly experience'" Edward joked.

"Well in that case go out the front door and around back. The outhouse is still there, I just don't use it; but it's good for a laugh when I take a group of tourists out huntin'." Daryl laughed. "Ya should see how prissy some of those city folk is."

* * *

"Come on Bobby, don't be such a chicken shit. Get them jugs loaded."

"I'm tellin ya Cletus, somethin's out in them woods."

"Probably ain't nothin but a possum. We need to get this load of shine on down to Merle. You know how pissed he gets when we're late, specially when Daryl ain't around for him ta fuck with." Cletus said.

"I think he's more pissed at the fact that Daryl's working with the cops, even if it's just trackin and such." Bobby said. "Hear they called im in to find that bear what ate them folks. Then Daryl up and says that it won't no bear. He don't know what it is, called in some guy from New Mexico to give him a hand.

Daryl knows every animal in these woods. If it's got Daryl Dixon flummoxed, I sure as hell don't want to find out what it is."

* * *

"You're right. It's not any kind of animal attack I'm familiar with." Edward said setting down the stack of photos. "I don't even have a clue. I think I should talk to Anita Blake."

"It ain't a vampire problem. I know what a vampire attack looks like. I can't see how the Executioner could help." Daryl said, placing a pot of stew on the table. "I mean ya call her in when them fang faced fucks get outta hand."

"She's the human servant of the Master of the City of St Louis. She's got some deep connections in both the vampire and shifter communities . Maybe one of them might be able to shed some light on what we're dealing with." Edward ladled out a bowl of stew. "Anyway it can't hurt. I'll need to fax her the photos."

"Ya got a fax number for her? I'll call the Sheriff, they can fax er copies from the office right now."

Edward took out his wallet and dug out a business card. "Fax it to the number for The Circus of the Damned. I'll call her and let her know they are coming.

But knowing her with something new out there, she's going to be ready to pack up and fly to Georgia herself."

* * *

Daryl woke up to the sound of his cell phone ringing. Only three people had this number Sheriff Foley, Edward and Merle. Edward was softly snoring on the fold away bed and he had already talked to the Sheriff tonight which left Merle.

"Yeah Merle. Whadda ya want." He asked sleepily.

"No I ain't seen Cletus and Bobby tonight. You know how them two drunks is. They's probably still up at the still sampling the latest batch. That's where they been every time you can't find em."

Daryl paused listening to the person on the other end of the connection.

"They ain't my friends Merle, they're your friends. And I'm in the middle of trying to find what ever killed them two kids. I ain't got time to be running around looking for a couple of drunks you sent to pick up your latest batch of goddamn moonshine."

Edward sat up. The cabin was well lit by the moonlight streaming in through the windows. "Problem?"

Daryl shook his head. "Just call Sheriff Foley, let him send somebody in the mornin. It's not like he don't know my brother is cookin shine and exactly where your still is. Long as you ain't poisonin nobody, Foley don't give two fucks!" Daryl ended the connection.

"You don't sound too worried." Edward remarked.

"Naw, those two know the woods pretty much as well as I do. Them campers were from outta state and the kids was some high class spoiled ass brats from the rich side of town. Probably thought their back yards was a fuckin wilderness.

Either way, I ain't going ta stumble my way up to that still tonight and neither will the Sheriff. Merle located that son of a bitch so's anyone looking to bust it would bust their head open fallin' down a ravine first. " Daryl said. "We just stick with the plan we already got, we wait for Anita to call you back and see if she can tell us what we're dealing with then we go out and pick up the trail.

Besides Bobby and Cletus probably be back in the mornin with the hangover from hell."


	3. Wendigo?

"Well that was a wash. None of Anita's contacts have ever heard of anything like this. She even asked among some of the oldest of them. It's nothing that they have seen before." Edward told Daryl as they stepped out of the diner headed to Daryl's truck.

"Well that sucks. We don't know no more now n we did last night." Daryl pointed out.

"Well we do know what it's not. But Anita suggested we check the local lore see if there's some sort of local Bogeyman that could be responsible."

"Nothin I've heard of and I grew up around here. I think I done heard every creepy story and old wives tale from round these parts. I'm just flat out of ideas here Ed." Daryl admitted.

"Join the club, when it stumps Anita you're a long way up the creek without a paddle."

"Well guess we might as well hit that trail." Daryl said.

The two men were walking across the street when Daryl's phone rang. Looking down he saw it was Sheriff Foley's number. "Shit! Please don't let him be sayin' they found more bodies."

Edward patiently waited while Daryl nodded and grunted in response to what he was hearing. Finally Daryl disconnected the phone looked at Edward and said "Cletus and Bobby showed up. They got em over at the Sheriff's office stone cold sober and they won't talk to nobody but me. Says they know what killed them people."

* * *

"Look Daryl, Merle's gonna be pissed." Cletus said. "He don't believe you saw that chupacabra and he's your brother. He sure as hell ain't gonna believe we saw Rev Collins last night."

"Rev Collins? Rev Jacob Collins that ran off with one of the women from his congregation last week? " Daryl shook his head. "Hell I don't believe that one myself. I ain't got time for your drunken bullshit. Y'all just gonna have to deal with Merle, I got more important things to do like trackin what's killin people up in those mountains and make sure it don't go killin no body else."

"Daryl, look we are sober. Ain't neither one of us touched a drop last night! We was too scared. We watched Rev Collins take down a damned coyote. Him and some other folks." Bobby said with a shiver. "They took that damned thing down and then strarted to pullin out the innards and eatin em. Me an Cletus hid up in the trees then."

"Did you notice anything unusual about them." Edward asked.

"You mean eatin raw coyote guts that was still steamin' ain't unusual enough for ya?" Cletus asked.

"I hunt shifters and vamps for a living." Edward answered. "I've seen shifters take down a grizzly and eat it after a change. So it takes a bit more than eating a coyote for me to consider it unusual."

"Okay how about Willa Francis? Ain't nobody seen her in weeks. I know her old man said she up and ran off with some drifter but she was in that group too. Looked like somethin had taken a big bite outta her neck. Matter of fact all them folks had bites on em, including Rev Collins." Bobby said.

"Willa Francis? Anybody else you recognized?" Daryl asked.

"Just those two." Cletus said

* * *

"Anita. How are things in St Louis? You haven't had any more visits from Mommie Dark have you?" Edward said as soon as Anita said hello.

 _"No it's been quiet but we just got off the phone an hour ago. Something happened since then?" Anita asked_.

"Yeah is Jean Claude still up or maybe Damien? Just found a couple of 'witnesses' who swear they saw missing people attack and kill a coyote and then start feasting on it's guts. That's consistent with our human victims. Just wondering if there's anything out there that your sources can think of." Edward told her.

_"I think you may be asking the wrong Marshall, Edward." Anita said. "It almost sounds kind of similar to the Native American Wendigo in a way. Maybe you should talk to Bernardo Spotted Horse. I think he would probably know more about Wendigos than I do._

_And you're in luck. Last I heard he was dating some doctor down in Dothan Alabama so he's pretty close to where you are."_

"Wendigo eh? Well, it's something. More than what we've had to this point." Edward wrote the word down. "I'll call if anything else comes up."

"Wendigo? What the hell is a Wendigo?" Daryl asked as Edward slipped the cell phone back in his pocket.

"A Native American bogeyman." Edward answered.

"Indian huh? Still got some Indians around these parts."

"I think I'll call another hunter I know, see if he knows anything about Wendigos. He grew up on a reservation." Edward said. "According to Anita he's in Dothan now."

* * *

"Ted, good to see you." Bernardo Spotted Horse said grabbing Edward's hand as the two men did that chest bump thing that passed in the world of men as a hug. He and Daryl had spent the morning in the library trying to learn all they could about Wendigos which wasn't much. When Bernardo called and said he was in town The diner was the obvious place to meet.

"You too Bernardo, you have got no idea." Edward turned to Daryl "This is Daryl Dixon, a tracker and bounty hunter for the local Sheriff's office."

"So you're Dixon. You're the only one I know of that turned down the badge when they grandfathered all of us into the new Marshall's program." Bernardo said shaking hands with Daryl.

"Yeah well, ain't no need for me to have a badge since I stay local. I know these woods. I wouldn't know my ass from a hole in the ground you take me outta Georgia." Daryl said. "Let's grab that booth back there and we can talk."

The men sat at the booth and were immediately joined by a young waitress. "Can I get you guys some coffee?" she asked.

"I sure could use a cup, Dani. What's Mabel got sweet hidin back there today?" Daryl questioned.

"Well I happen to know she was baking peach cobbler this morning." Dani said.

"Well then, why don't you bring coffee and peach cobbler all round." Daryl said.

"Nice looking girl." Bernardo noted watching the woman's hips sway as she walked away.

"Dani? Yeah she is I guess. She's one of Merle's women. Wouldn't look at er too hard though, less you wanna risk getting the clap." Daryl said. "She'll spread her legs for anythin with a pulse."

"Ehem yes, so think about something else other than getting in another woman's pants Bernardo." Edward said.

"How about Wendigos?" Bernardo suggested.

"That's a subject that interests me." Daryl said. "Let's get our order first then we can talk pretty much uninterrupted."

Dani was headed to the table with a tray laden with bowls of warm peach cobbler and a pot of coffee. She set the cobbler on the table and poured coffee for the men. "Here you are guys, anything else I can get you?" Dani asked with a smile at Daryl.

"No thanks Dani, we're good." Daryl said. "We'll let you know if we need anythin'."

"So, Wendigos?" Edward prompted once the waitress has set their order in front of them and walked away to take care of other customers.

Bernardo stirred a little cream in his coffee gathering his thoughts. "You've heard of the Donner Party right?"

"Them settlers that got stuck with no food heading west back in the 1800's? The ones that started eatin on each other when they was starvin'?" Daryl asked.

"That's them. Probably the most widely known case of a possible Wendigo. A Wendigo starts off as human just like you or me, but then somewhere along the line for some reason they start to develop a taste for human flesh."

"Cannibals?" Edward asked.

"No people who practice cannibalism as an accepted part of their culture don't usually turn for some reason." Bernardo said. "A Wendigo comes from a culture where cannibalism is taboo. When they eat the flesh of another human being, they change. They develop this ravenous hunger for more human flesh. Stories about them vary from tribe to tribe. Some tribes think they gain magical powers; shapeshifting, super strength, unnatural speed the ability to instantly move from place to place. Things like that. Some tribes even think they can't be killed."

"Didn't hear no tell of any of that with the Donner Party though." Daryl said.

"That's because that part was never documented. When they were rescued, most of the survivors put the whole thing behind them and tried to live normal lives. But what became Donner Pass is plagued by mysterious deaths even today. Those deaths usually get written off as some kind of animal attack." Bernardo said. "Kind of like what you have on your hands here."

"So now the $64,000 question Bernardo, how do you kill one." Edward said.

"No one really knows. There are hundreds of stories of Warriors going out to hunt Wendigos, but no stories of them coming back victorious."

"In other words, we are well and truly fucked. One thing about you Injuns is that y'all can't resist braggin' on your victories" Daryl said.

"You're right about that Dixon." Bernardo agreed. "Since there are no stories of victory we can only assume that every war party has been a failure. You are fucked unless you can figure out something that all those warriors over the years didn't know."


	4. Vengeance thy name is Daryl

"At least I ain't had to go to Atlanta again." Daryl said as he stood with Bernardo and Edward watching the private jet touch down on the runway at the small municipal airport outside of town.

"Anita is worried, she thought we could use the help." Edward said.

"So who did she send?" Bernardo asked, "Anyone we know?"

"Bobby Lee who figured he would get a free trip home out of the deal. He brought some of the wolves and other rats; but they are all muscle, damned good in a fight." Edward answered as he watched the shifters debarking from Jean Claude's private jet.

"I can't believe I'm agreein' to all these damned varmints comin to town. Ya better make it clear to em that folks round here won't hesitate to put em down so they better be damned good at playing human." Daryl said.

"Don't worry, Daryl. They are." Edward assured him.

* * *

Another day wasted but no new bodies Daryl thought to himself. At least none that had been found. Most of the varmints had set up tents outside in the cleared area around the cabin but inside Bobby Lee, Edward, Bernardo and Daryl were talking. Daryl actually found he didn't mind the wererat named Bobby Lee who had grown up down around Valdosta way.

Bobby Lee was as impressed with the human as he thought he would be. Although Daryl seemed quiet and easygoing, the boy had a hair trigger. No wonder he was so well known among the shifter and vamp communities.

"You know Daryl, we have a name for you we use among ourselves too just like with Anita and Edward, we call ya 'Vengeance'. That's probably the biggest compliment you can get from us. It means you give the monsters nightmares."

"I don't hunt shifters and vamps." Daryl said glancing at the man just a bit confused.

"We know that, which is why the community here in Georgia is so damn scared of ya'" Bobby Lee chuckled. "They're scared you might one day up and decide to start huntin' em. Right now ya kill em in a heartbeat if'n they cross ya path wrong, but ya don't go gunnin for em. Ya go gunnin' for em and Georgia might just be declared off limits. That don't happen much."

"The only other case I know of it happening is Santa Fe." Edward explained. "It's off limits in the vamp community due to our local master of the city, Obsidian Butterfly. Talk about delusions, Obsidian Butterfly insists she is an ancient Aztec goddess and she is still worshiped as one by her followers. Until the Mother of all Darkness started waking up, she was the only thing that scared the hell out of the Vampire Council."

"You tryin to convince me that a bunch of varmints, no offense Bobby Lee, think I'm some god?" Daryl snorted.

"None taken and no. We don't think you're some god, we think you're Satan himself!" Bobby Lee replied. "Look at them arrows. Silver tipped ain't they. And then there's that little bottle over there, I can smell the garlic from here. Ya may not go out huntin us but you know enough to be prepared for us when ya go out huntin."

"Well we don't know what it's going to take." Edward interrupted. "So I'm thinking that extra firepower can't hurt." Edward began unpacking one of his duffel bags pulling out a number of high powered rifles, and grenades.

"Well since it's show and tell time, I guess it's my turn." Bernardo said dumping a collection of colored stones onto the table. "Got them from a Cherokee medicine man some years back. I carry them where ever I go."

"Magic? I don't believe in it. I'd rather trust in my Horton than some hoodoo." Daryl said.

"You'd be surprised how many times the faith of the person that made the talisman is what makes it work. Since we really don't know what we're dealing with any edge we can get will help." Bernardo said.

"Well pack whatever you're gonna need. Once we hit the trail in the morning we ain't comin back till we dealt with this." Daryl said.

* * *

The sun was just peeking over the horizon when two four wheel drive vehicles left the small cabin the next morning. Daryl had called the Sheriff to fill him in on the fact that there was a large group of hunters heading up into the mountains to track whatever it was (even if the Sheriff was still insisting that it was a bear) and also called Merle to let him know that Cletus and Bobby had shown up.

Edward had made a few calls of his own. First to Donna and of course Becca and Pete had to get on the phone (Becca to tell him she wished he was home and Pete to tell him he wished he was going on the hunt). Then to Anita to check in and let her know that Booby Lee had arrived and that they were heading of into the mountains to start hunting whatever this bogey was.

Anita was wishing she could be along too but as Edward had told her, "If Vengeance and Death aren't enough to handle it, having the Executioner along probably wouldn't better our odds."

After 45 minutes of driving, Daryl turned off on a red clay road that was nothing more than a couple of ruts worn into the ground by tires.

"Are you sure this is a road?" Edward said as he bounced off the seat at another rut.

"It's an old logging road." Daryl explained. "Been the local make out spot since my pa was a teenager. Story is Ma got knocked up with Merle out here."

Edward noticed that they had reached a clearing still surrounded by yellow police tape. Daryl shut off the truck and climbed out. Reaching into the bed of the pickup he shrugged into a back pack before setting his bow.

"Grab your stuff, folks. We're on foot from here. Just keep an eye out for wild hogs and snakes."

"Ah Daryl. Ya forgetting what we are? Wild hog smells us comin he's gonna unass the area real quick." Bobby Lee said with a chuckle.

"Guess it's habit. Takin them damned city slickers on their little huntin trips. I kinda forget some folks ain't totally lost up here." Daryl said.


	5. Josiah

Daryl was used to taking the lead when he went out so it was a bit unsettling to be behind someone else, namely Bobby Lee. The trail was admittedly faint after a few days. That was when the shifters came up with a brilliant idea. The werewolves could follow the trail by scent.

One of them was now in full wolf form, it was huge. The others were still in human form but they explained that even in human form they were picking up a faint whiff of something, but whatever it was smelled wrong. As a result Daryl, Edward and Bernardo had quickly found themselves surrounded by shifters on all sides.

"I smell it too." Bobby Lee. "It almost smells like one of your wolves meetin' places."

"That's what we thought at first too." Manny one of the wolves spoke up. "Like death, but with a tinge of decay. That's what's off. The Munin don't smell like decay."

"Hey we got a body up here." Bobby Lee called back to the others.

"Shit!" Daryl said pushing his way forward. Looking down at the body of the old black man, he whispered "Josiah."

* * *

"I know you were one of the few people Josiah would speak to when he came to town." Sheriff Foley said. "Also one of the few he wouldn't take a potshot at."

"Josiah knew these mountains like the back of his hand. Ain't no way a bear or anythin else up here woulda got the best of him." Daryl said.

"I know most of us local law enforcement agencies don't like the Feds pissin in our ponds, but I have to say I'm glad to have em here. This is way out of my league. And this whole mess is givin me a bigger pain in the ass every damned minute." Foley told Daryl. "That girl we found the other night? Somehow her body disappeared from the mortuary's prep room. I had just hung up the phone with them, the gal was laid out on the slab waitin for em to start emblamin' her. The undertaker left long enough to take a piss came back and she was gone.

So not only do we have people getting gutted on the mountain, we got freaks in town thinks the bodies make some kind of sick keepsake. I swear Daryl, the world is going to hell in a handbasket."

Edward stood up from where he had been examining the body and joined Daryl and the Sheriff. "Sheriff, I'm Marshall Ted Forrester. Although Marshall Spotted Horse and I are here, we agreed this is still your case. We'll assist in anyway we can, we're technically 'on vacation'. My advice to you is to keep this local. I don't think there's anyone that we could pull in that would be able to do anything that we aren't already doing. And If you do call in help from the Marshall's office they are simply going to take things over and screw it up.

I'll be honest with you, we've been hot to get Dixon here on the payroll, but he keeps turning us down. You have Daryl, we don't have anyone with his tracking skills. And to be honest we're all in the dark here so calling us in officially won't help much."

"Daryl with a badge?" Sheriff Foley laughed. "Believe me you'll see the devil strolling down Peachtree Street bundled up in a mink coat before that happens!"

The County Coroner had finished loading Josiah's body in the old beat up SUV that was still used to transport bodies and was pulling out to head down the mountain.

"Guess I better get back too. Still need to go by Sam's place and take a report on that missing body. You boys be careful up here. Daryl can tell you what a tough old bird Josiah was. Keep your eyes peeled." Foley said as he headed off to his car.

* * *

"We'd best sleep in shifts." Edward suggested as they all sat around the campfire.

"Yeah I was thinkin' the same thing. I don't mind tellin ya anything that could creep up on Josiah ain't nothin to be playin round with." Daryl said.

"You knew him well?" Bernardo asked.

"That old man's been livin up on this mountain alone for as long as I can remember. Made his livin by trappin. I was 12 when I met him. He sorta took me under his wing, passed on what he knew. Dropped outta school in the 4th grade but he was one of the smartest men I knew. Not book smarts, since it won't exactly required to school 'coloreds' back then; but common sense. Livin with nature, shit like that."

"The wolves gonna shift except for Manny. They'll patrol round the site. Nice thing about us is when we shift we have the animal form and instincts but human intelligence." Bobby Lee told them. "But I suggest we all sleep locked and loaded just in case."

* * *

Daryl sat up grabbing his bow and checking that it was set. The Wolf howled again. Edward was also awake and alert.

"It's out there," Bobby Lee whispered. "I can smell it."

Daryl pointed off into the bushes just as a loud canine yelp of pain reached them. The men quickly got to their feet. The next sound was gunfire.

Edward grabbed Bernardo as he started forward. All of them raised weapons at the sound of something coming toward them from the undergrowth. Manny stumbled into camp constantly looking behind him followed by an injured wolf.

"They bit Matt. Son's of bitches. Bullets won't take them down." Manny said. "They look human but they smell dead. All of them have been bitten, some worse than others. Some of them are fucking gutted. I counted five."

"What are you firing?" Edward asked calmly.

"Silver. Anita taught us, silver will take down almost anything." Bobby Lee answered. He dropped his Browning and pulled out a Desert Eagle. "But not everything, sometimes it takes good old fashioned lead."

"Daryl " Edward hissed tossing him a 9mm. "That one is lead."

"Are we just going to stand here? Bernardo asked quietly.

"Best thing would be to wait for sun up." Daryl said. "There's some pretty treacherous ground around here.

"If we stay here they'll have to come to us, we go out there we might walk right into them." Edward said. "No sense in giving yourself to the enemy. We stay together here, hold out until sun up."


	6. And the dead shall walk the Earth

It took less than an hour for the sun to rise. The group made it's way to a small clearing about 50 yards from where they had camped. Daryl made everyone stop then dropped to his haunches studying the ground.

"What are you doing?" Matt asked. "We need to get after them."

"We will, but I told ya there's some treacherous ground around here. Josiah used to do a lot of trappin in this area. Dependin on which way they came from, we might run into any number of Josiah's traps and such."

Daryl stood up. "Y'all better stay behind me. Just be careful to step where I step."

"We'll stay behind ya unless we smell em. If we do, one of us gonna jump in front of ya so don't be putting no silver tipped arrows in our asses." Bobby Lee said firmly.

"Fair enough but gimme some warnin first." Daryl said starting forward.

* * *

Sheriff Foley had been at the hospital all night hoping Mark 'Sam' Samuels would wake up and tell him what had happened. He had left Daryl and the boys up on the mountain and gone straight to the funeral home to find Sam on the floor with a chunk of flesh missing from his arm. The girl that had supposedly gone missing was laying on the floor with an embalming needle jammed in her eye.

Sam had been rushed to the hospital. By the time Foley had finished waiting for someone to come and handle the girl's body a couple of hours had passed. Since Sam had the only mortuary in town, Foley had to wait for someone to get up and drive 50 miles from the next county. By the time Foley arrived at the hospital Sam was out of his head with a fever talking about dead people walking.

Sam had died a few minutes ago. The doctors were stumped. They should have been able to handle a fever. They figured that there was obviously something else. Some sort of poison in the bite.

Foley went to the nurse's station and poured himself another cup of coffee. He then went outside to call Daryl. Cletus said those folks the saw up on the mountain were bit too. It looked like they had made their way to town.

* * *

"Shit. Shit, Shit, SHIT!" Daryl yelled as he paced back and forth.

"I take it the news won't good." Bobby Lee observed.

"No! The fuckin' news won't good." Daryl yelled back kicking the trunk of the nearest tree.

"Well it might help if you told us the news." Edward noted.

Daryl continued to pace back and forth as he spoke. "Foley just told me that Sam is dead. Our local undertaker. Somethin took a bite out of his arm and Sam died of a fever about a half hour ago. That girl's body that was missin was layin on the floor with a embalmin needle in er eye.

We had a run in with em last night. Ain't no way anythin on foot coulda killed Josiah, gone to town and killed Sam and come back from town to try for us last night!"

"They're moving off the mountain." Bernardo said brow furrowed into a frown. "Maybe they were eating animals at first but somehow got a taste for human flesh and now they are looking for more food?"

"That's what happens when a shifter goes rogue." Manny said. "Most shifter groups will hunt a rogue down and kill them to protect their pack. This is like having nothing but rogues in an area."

"If an entire town is at risk we may need to call in help." Edward said. "Anita would be a big help, but she's got her hands full with the Mother of all Darkness."

"What about Otto?" Bernardo suggested.

"He's out of pocket. Took some personal time out of the country." Edward explained. "I don't see how we can avoid reporting this."

"I don't care who you call in, but there's a town full of people down there that ain't got a clue what's about to hit 'em. I'm a call Foley tell him to get everybody indoors." Daryl said.

He was dialing the Sheriff's number when Willa Francis came shambling out of the woods. She came toward him with her arms out stretched. There was no way this woman should be walking. Her neck was a ragged mess. It was obvious that something had been eating on her and with that much damage to both the jugular and carotid artery, she should be dead.

He dropped the phone and grabbed the 9mm. The bullet tore through her chest without slowing her down. Daryl adjusted his aim putting a bullet through her heart she still didn't slow down...

"Headshots!" Edward yelled. "Go for the headshot."

Daryl aimed between Willa's eyes. This time she dropped like a stone. The gunfire died down. Five bodies lay on the ground not moving. Daryl noticed Rev Collins among them.

"All of these people should be dead I mean before we shot them. No way they should have been running around in the woods." Bernardo noticed.

Daryl set his bow as the gun was now empty. A low hissing growl from the woods caught his attention. He turned to see another one headed his way. It wasn't anyone he recognized. He fired the arrow aiming for the man's head. The body dropped to the ground as dead as the rest. "I guess it don't matter what you shoot em with long as it's in the head."

"Hey Daryl, you might want to answer the Sheriff." Bobby Lee said nodding at the phone on the ground.

"Foley, call the Feds. Then get everybody off the streets. Ya see anybody walkin funny shoot em in the head. We're coming back to town."


	7. Enter the FBI

"I thought you told the Sheriff to get people off the streets?" Bernardo said. "The damned street is packed."

"You're in Georgia." Daryl explained. "Most folks around here will take that to mean lock up your women and children, grab your shotgun and make sure you keep the town safe."

"So we see," Edward dryly commented.

"I'm going to have to check in with Foley and see if he even called yet. Well after I talk to Merle that is." Daryl said spotting his brother heading towards him.

"Daryl, what the hell you done started now?" Merle asked. "Foley's bout to piss his pants and everyone in town is in a uproar. On top of that you told Foley to call in some damned Feds? What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Merle I ain't got time for for your bullshit. I just put a bullet between Willa Francis' eyeballs up on the mountain. She shoulda already been dead. She was up there walkin' around with her damned throat torn out." Daryl said.

"We got dead people walkin around gnawin on living people. That still of yours is the least of our problems right now. Right now I'm more worried about keepin anybody else from getting killed."

"Dead people? You been eatin shrooms again dummy? Done graduated from chucpacabras ta corpses." Merle spat.

"Fuck you Merle. You just remember that I warned you when you see one of em shufflin down the street." Daryl said heading toward the entrance to the Sheriff's Office.

* * *

Special Agent Bradley Bradford looked up to see Marshall Ted Forrester enter the room. His worry level went up. Brad was one of only a handful of people who knew the good old boy persona was a front for one of the most prolific serial killers in the country. The only reason people weren't screaming for his head was because 'Edward's' victims tended to be bad little vamps and shifters. The fact that Edward was here meant that this was some deep shit.

Brad was surprised to see not Anita on Edward's heel, but slightly taller man carrying a crossbow. "Marshall Forrester!" Brad waved to get his attention.

"Ah hell,"Edward sighed. "Like I said they're screwing it up." Edward whispered to Daryl.

"Agent Bradford, Good to see you again. Last time I saw you was in Santa Fe when we were hunting Obsidian Butterfly's little pet." Edward said shaking the agent's hand. "This is Daryl Dixon, a local tracker. He called me to see if maybe I wanted to help him track bears while I was on vacation."

"Dixon huh? Well nice to meet you. Now if you'll excuse us I need to speak with Marshall Forrestor for a minute ." Bradley nodded at Daryl.

"Agent Bradford, Daryl may not carry a badge like the rest of us, but he has been grandfathered in to the Marshall's program." Edward explained.

"Okay so lets go somewhere quiet so you two can tell me exactly what is going on here." Bradford nodded.

"We can use the conference room." Daryl said leading the way. Once the three men were inside Daryl locked the door.

"Right now the government is mobilizing HAZMAT teams at Ft Benning and Ft Stewart. They have put all military installations along the Eastern seaboard on high alert as far north as Virginia" Bradford said. "Whatever is going on they are taking it seriously enough to mobilize troops, while playing it off by sending only me and one assistant down. They haven't let out any information to the rest of the Marshalls. We all know that smells of cover up."

"Anita knows some of what is happening." Edward said.

"So Blake's in the know. That's good. Anyone else?" Bradley asked.

"Marshall Bernardo Spotted Horse." Edward added.

"Edward, you know as well as I know what happens to people who know things if the government wants to cover this up. Let's keep the official story around town that it's a rogue shifter."

"That's gonna be kinda hard if the boys out there start to shooting corpses. It's gonna be kind of hard to play like everybody thought it was just a werewolf or somthin." Daryl noted.

"That's why we are all going to have to work together here. We don't want any bodies in the streets around town. Has anybody in town died from bites?" Bradley asked.

"Well Sam this morning and they brought Josiah down yesterday." Daryl said.

"Looks like we've got business the morgue. Once we get everything done I have a story for you that you won't believe." Bradley said.

* * *

"Merle look whether you believe me or not, make sure if anyone gets shot, you take their body outside of town and dump it. We don't want no bodies found in town." Daryl told him.

"They gonna call in the army?"

"They already have. If we can keep the idea that nobody knows anythin about what's goin on, they'll just evacuate us. They think we know more than we're lettin on and they might just disappear our asses. Got it?" Daryl said.

"Yeah I got it. Ain't no more n I'd spect from those bastards anyway." Merle replied.

* * *

"Sorry Josiah." Daryl said as he put a bullet in the old mountain man's head. "Don't seem right, leaving him out here for anythin to come along and gnaw on him. He deserves better n this. So did Sam. Sam ain't never hurt nobody."

"I'm sorry for this, Dixon. But believe me, you did them a favor. They would thank you if they could." Bradford said. "There a decent bar in town? I'll buy you a drink while I tell you what I know."


	8. The beginning of the end

"Okay Bradford tell us what you know." Edward said. It was a small group in the private back room of the bar. In addition to Edward and Agent Bradford; Bernardo, Daryl and Sheriff Foley were sitting around the table.

Brad let out a sigh. "Well I don't think I have to tell any of you that the government does things that people don't know. Most people think the arms race ended with the fall of the USSR, it didn't. It's continued to this very day except now the enemy is the unseen 'terrorist'. Our military researchers have dropped all the nuclear shit. They figured whats the point of defeating an enemy if you have destroyed everything he's built. What if there was a way to destroy your enemy and have all the infrastructure in place? Just go in, do a little clean up and move in."

Bradford looked down at his beer. "I think I'm going to need something a little stronger for this."

Daryl stood up and went to a cabinet in the corner pulling out a plastic 1 gallon milk jug filled with a clear liquid. He unscrewed the top and sniffed. "Can't get much stronger n this, Merle's special brew." He sat the jug on the table watching as Bradford poured himself a shot then sputtered and coughed before catching his breath.

"That's better." Bradford took a deep breath before continuing. "About a year ago, one of the researchers found a way to manipulate brain chemistry in lab rats to make them attack each other. He figured what if he could find a way to create this response in people? It would be the perfect weapon. People would kill each other without destroying everything around them. He went to his supervisors with it. They thought it was genius."

"Hand me that jug will you." Edward said.

"Since when did you start drinking Edward?" Bernardo asked passing the moonshine.

"Since now, I have a feeling this isn't going to go down unless I'm half drunk." Edward told him.

Bradford continued. "Our military brass kind of let it slip to a few of our trusted allies, soon there was over a dozen countries all working together on the research. The problem was delivering it. I mean you can't walk around in an enemy nation trying to inject everyone individually. They needed a method of mass delivery. That's when the idea of a virus came to them."

"A virus? You mean like the flu?" The sheriff asked.

"Exactly like that." Bradford nodded. "Viruses spread fast and they are extremely opportunistic. It makes them the perfect carrier. Someone infected would spread it to the uninfected. You could wipe out a whole country in a matter of weeks. The problem is that viruses don't differentiate between friend and foe. They don't follow orders. They mutate and change in the way they want without regard to what we want."

"Shit." Daryl said with feeling.

"Yeah shit. One of the lab assistants snuck sample out. We figured he wanted to impress his girlfriend. Bathesda reported it to us 2 weeks ago. We've been looking for him ever since then. Bad luck for your little town he decided to take her camping on that mountain back there. But it was damned good luck for everyone else in this country."

"Good luck?" Sheriff Foley sputtered.

"Yes good luck that Dixon pegged it as something other than a bear attack. He called in Edward. The Bureau got notification as soon as you called it in Sheriff. The military were notified of the call while you were still on the line. It was more good luck you said it was some sort of shifter. Your little town doesn't have to die."

"So what now." Daryl asked.

"Hazmat will come in and evacuate the town. As long as everyone keeps their mouth shut, the military will send in some ringers for the Marshall's office to go in and handle the 'shifter'. They will clear the area then give the Sheriff a bullshit report detailing the capture and execution of the rogue shifter pack and life will go on."

"So that's it?" Bernardo asked.

"That's it." Bradford said. "Within a week this will all be the basis of some new urban legend. Eventually everyone will forget that anything ever happened here out of the ordinary."

* * *

Epilog

Hazmat had done a thorough job sweeping the mountain. They had pulled out 18 infected bodies while the public was fed a story about a rogue shifter pack. For a while life was miserable for the folks living around the mountain as gawkers and monster hunters descended on the area. When they realized that the locals were determined to remain closed mouth about what happened they went away. And life went back to normal.

What was never revealed to anyone was the Real report that was given to the Military brass. One of those 18 bodies was removed 'alive'. It was taken to an undisclosed location in Georgia where researchers could continue their work in an effort to perfect what many in the military considered 'The Perfect Weapon'."


End file.
